On Thursday, Ritshidze – a community-led monitoring system developed by several HIV-related organisations, like the Treatment Action Campaign, Positive Action Campaign, and Positive Women’s Network, among others – released their latest quarterly healthcare report, with some grim findings pertaining to the situation in the Free State. 

The Hoopstad and Welkom Clinics are ranked the second and third most understaffed clinics by patients in the same report. Ritshidze Project Manager, Mary Nyathi, says stock-outs of fixed-dose combination antiretroviral medication, in addition to a shortage of nursing and support staff, are some of the biggest issues impacting the functionality of clinics in the province.

“You find that when clinics are really short-staffed, tempers go all over the place. Most facility staff members are agitated because of the pressure they’re put under,” says Nyathi. She further reveals that in one instance, a facility manager was reduced to tears, because of the lack of support staff, i.e. cleaners, which had resulted in her now having to clean the clinic herself daily before diving into her actual work.

According to Ritshidze’s data (About Ritshidze - Ritshidze)  for April to June 2021, 79% of facility managers, like the one referred to by Nyathi, concede there is a lack of staff in the clinics they head, with 26 vacancies observed across 20 of the sites monitored by the project’s team. Cleanliness has also been mentioned as another prevailing issue affecting Free State clinics, in light of a lack of cleaners.

A total of 50% of the primary healthcare facilities under observation by the project are said to not have enough cleaners, with 18% of the cleaners officially registering cleaner vacancies. This is deemed to impact the rendering of healthcare services to residents in the province quite severely, especially those who are HIV positive.

Now the project recommends that by March 2022 the Free State Health Department should aim to fill 80% of the existing vacancies. It remains to be seen if they will be able to do that.

OFM News